ANDRÉ MALRAUX - MAN’S FATE

The author and his sons

I was reading some of Ralph Ellison’s essays and began to notice that he often mentioned André Malraux as a modern master in the same league as Camus, Hemingway, and Joyce. Since I hadn’t read anything by André Malraux, and have a high regard for Ellison’s critical perspective, I set about to remedy the situation directly. I found Man’s Fate more impressive in the ambition of its content than its form. The story follows revolutionaries in Shanghai. It’s not a historical context I know anything about, but it feels — and is, apparently — lived. Complex political ideas emerge gracefully via characters I came to care about (and who come from a wide range of ethnic/social backgrounds). 

Like a whole lot of early 20th century literature, it’s not just Marx but Freud that’s looming large above it: for instance, Mr. Malraux expounds at length (and more or less in Freud’s language) about the “death-drive” of several characters, which seemed unnecessary to me, since these characters had already shown their motivation through their actions. I should also note: I had the misfortune of getting a used copy of Man’s Fate with highlights from someone who had clearly read it with the aim of acing a test on the novel and its themes. Perhaps this colored my reading in overly analytical tones. Never got lost in the thing.  Read, July 2020.